Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Animal: Prehistoric Sharks, Other Fish and Our Environment

Hi guys, I have been keeping this entry not posted until one day something related is out, and now there is.

Is any one of you interested in a latest movie called Piranha 3D? I watched the trailer and I thought it was stupid, so I decided not to watch it. Is it really stupid? Well, you can watch this video clip review for yourself. If you want to learn some of the terms they used, here is the page.



Here's a real one:
Piranha
Image from destination360.com

Am I promoting the movie? Nope. Then why do I want to talk about it? Actually, I don't want to talk about this movie, except that the piranhas in the movie are prehistoric. I just want to bring up the point on prehistoric fish, in particular, the prehistoric sharks and fish that I am really fascinated by.

Okay, how about a piece of news from DBW, a China web, 500kg Chinese Sturgeon caught in Helongjiang (Thanks to Google Translate, I roughly know what the news is reporting).
Chinese Sturgeon
Image from dbw.cn

Chinese Sturgeon from the front
Image from dbw.cn


Freshly caught!!! Want more? Here's a huge Sturgeon pool!



Let's watch a huge discovery of a live living fossil, a Frilled Shark!!!

The shark eventually died. The question is, what was it doing in the shallow water? According to Wikipedia, "It has been caught as deep as 1,570 m (5,150 ft), whereas in Suruga Bay, Japan it is most common at depths of 50–200 m (160–660 ft)"


Frilled Shark
Image from National Geographic

Here's the next one, also appearing on video camera for the first time in history, a live Goblin shark!!!! 


Goblin Shark
Image from dearjesus.files.wordpress.com

Cool, isn't it? Since we have seen two types of prehistoric sharks, might as well see two more, the Sixgill Shark and the Pacific Sleeper Shark. The latter can live 2,000m (6,600ft) below water surface!!!!


Here are two pictures for you to see a little clearer:
Sixgill Shark
Image by echeng.com

Pacific Sleeper Shark
Image from aneh.thatbest.com

Not old enough? Want the oldest fish on this planet? Check out the following!!

Live baby Coelacanths!!

Nov 17 - Japanese and Indonesian researchers capture on film a newly born Coelacanth - a prehistoric fish experts see as a ''missing link'' between fish and amphibian creatures. Reuters

Coelacanth
Image from thenakedscientists.com

I hope you enjoy watching all these videos, get to practise your listening skills and find these fish interesting. Just a little question / homework for all of you to think about.

HW:

It is really amazing to see these remarkable, prehistoric fish, better swimming in the sea than getting caught and eventually die. But why is it that these fish suddenly become unobscured (not hiding)? The fact that they have been hiding from human for millions and billions of years, what make them want to show their faces to us now? Has their environment changed? If so, how much?

Fruit for thoughts.

Vocabulary:
unobscured -- (adj) not obscured
obscure -- (vb) [T] to make something difficult to discover and understand


Picture resources:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frilled_shark
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